Tesla CEO Elon Musk reportedly attempted to hire Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess to take up his own role at Tesla in 2015.
Diess is one of the most respected car drivers in the business. After more than 15 years at BMW, where he was one of the top drivers, he decided to leave in 2014. Since then, BMW’s electrification efforts have faltered.
There are rumors that the coveted CEO would move to Volkswagen, but someone else apparently tried to sneak in.
A report of Business Insider Germany states that in 2015 Musk offered the lead role at Tesla to Diess, and that the latter even had the contract in his hands:
Herbert Diess undoubtedly knows this himself. In fact, there was not much missing and the Austrian would not have switched from BMW to Volkswagen in 2015 – he would have become Tesla’s new CEO. According to research by Business Insider, Diess had a contract of employment from the Americans that was ready to be signed. Consequently, Elon Musk wanted to hand over the management of Tesla to Diess. A spectacular process that Diess has so far only allowed in a few people at Volkswagen. A VW spokesman said upon inquiry: “No comment.”
In recent years, we have learned about the relationship between Musk and Diess, as they publicly compliment each other’s leadership roles in electrifying the automotive industry.
But now we know from the report that the two knew each other from Diess’ days at BMW. They apparently met in person in 2014, which is surprising because Tesla did not have a relationship with BMW as with BMW’s rival Daimler, which was a shareholder in Tesla.
Although the report does not explain why Diess did not take the role at Tesla and instead went to Volkswagen, it did say that Diess still had a positive view of Tesla and even apparently personally invested in the electric car manufacturer.
After a few years at Volkswagen and after the Dieselgate scandal, Diess takes the reins as CEO of the group and accelerates the carmaker’s electrification effort. He got inspiration from Tesla in the process.
Diess also implemented the ‘Tesla Catch Up Plan’ he calls internally to reduce the software gap between the German carmaker and Tesla.
Late last year he had Musk do a test drive of the VW ID.3 and later he did a test drive of the Model Y himself.
Electrek’s Take
This is an interesting bit of information, because we already knew that Elon did not even want to be CEO of Tesla in the first place.
Martin Eberhard, Tesla’s original CEO and co-founder, was unable to bring the Roadster to customers and was ejected in 2008.
Tesla tried to find a new CEO, but it was not easy to find a good driver during a failed EV business in the midst of a major financial crisis. Musk eventually took over and 13 years later he is still CEO.
However, he has always said that he will always stay with Tesla to some extent, but that he does not want to be CEO forever.
It looks like he saw an opportunity to put Tesla in the hands of a capable car driver as Diess left BMW and tried to seize the opportunity, but it did not work out.
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